Bahia Palace
A hundred and fifty rooms, eight hectares of zellij and painted cedar, built for a grand vizier and his four wives.
Duration
1 hr – 1 hr 30 min
Best time
At opening
Open
Every day
Entry price
100 MAD
The palace was built at the end of the nineteenth century for Si Moussa, grand vizier, then greatly enlarged by his son Ba Ahmed. The name means 'the brilliant one', and is said to refer to one of his wives.
It has no overall plan: Ba Ahmed bought up neighbouring houses as he went and absorbed them, which explains the levels that fail to line up and the corridors that turn. On his death in 1900 the sultan had it stripped of its contents within days — which is why the hundred and fifty rooms are bare, and why you look only at the painted cedar ceilings and the zellij.
Getting there
Rue Riad Zitoun el Jdid, in the medina, fifteen minutes on foot from Jemaa el-Fna through the southern souks.
What the price covers
adult entry. Child, 30 DH.
Rules on site
The rooms are empty and the palace disappoints anyone expecting furnishings: it is the ceilings and the courtyards that make the visit. Unofficial guides wait at the gate and attach themselves — visiting on your own is perfectly possible.
Checked on 28 August 2026 at Bahia Palace — official rates
Other places in Marrakech
- Majorelle GardenMajorelle blue, bamboo and cactus, in the garden Yves Saint Laurent saved from the developers.
Saadian TombsA necropolis walled up for two centuries, found again in 1917 by an aerial photograph.- Jemaa el-Fna squareSnake charmers by day, a hundred open-air kitchens by night, and the medina all around.